php get visibility - php

Question

Is it possible to get the visibility of methods and properties inside a class in php?
I want to be able to do something like this:
function __call($method, $args)
{
if(is_callable(array($this,$method))
{
if(get_visibility(array($this,$method)) == 'private')
//dosomething
elseif(get_visibility(array($this,$method)) == 'protected')
//dosomething
else
//dosomething
}
}

Answer 1

is_callable takes visibility into account, but since you are using it from inside the class it will always evaluate to TRUE.
To get the method visiblity, you have to use the Reflection API and check the method's modifiers
Abridged example from PHP Manual:
class Testing
{
final public static function foo()
{
return;
}
}
// this would go into your __call method
$foo = new ReflectionMethod('Testing', 'foo');
echo implode(
Reflection::getModifierNames(
$foo->getModifiers()
)
); // outputs finalpublicstatic
The same is available for properties.
However, due to the complexity of reflecting on a class, this can be slow. You should benchmark it to see if it impacts your application too much.

Answer 2

You might want to consider using PHP's Reflection API for this. However, I should also ask you why you want to do this, because Reflection usually only gets used in situations that are a bit hacky to begin with. It is possible though, so here goes:
<?php
class Foo {
/**
*
* #var ReflectionClass
*/
protected $reflection;
protected function bar( ) {
}
private function baz( ) {
}
public function __call( $method, $args ) {
if( ( $reflMethod = $this->method( $method ) ) !== false ) {
if( $reflMethod->isPrivate( ) ) {
echo "That's private.<br />\n";
}
elseif( $reflMethod->isProtected( ) ) {
echo "That's protected.<br />\n";
}
}
}
protected function method( $name ) {
if( !isset( $this->methods[$name] ) ) {
if( $this->reflect( )->hasMethod( $name ) ) {
$this->methods[$name] = $this->reflect( )->getMethod( $name );
}
else {
$this->methods[$name] = false;
}
}
return $this->methods[$name];
}
protected function reflect( ) {
if( !isset( $this->reflection ) ) {
$this->reflection = new ReflectionClass( $this );
}
return $this->reflection;
}
}
$foo = new Foo( );
$foo->baz( );
$foo->bar( );

Answer 3

This answer is a bit late, but I feel there is still some added value by mentioning get_class_methods() in combination with method_exists():
<?php
class Foo {
// ...
public function getVisibility($method) {
if ( method_exists($this, $method) && in_array($method, get_class_methods($this)) ) {
return 'protected or public';
} else {
return 'private';
}
}
}